Salvatore Cordileone smiled as he walked to the front doors of the cathedral. Salvatore Cordileone was installed as the ninth Metropolitan Archbishop of San Francisco Thursday October 4, 2012 at a mass at the Cathedral of St. Mary. Thousands attended including dozens of protesters. less

Salvatore Cordileone smiled as he walked to the front doors of the cathedral. Salvatore Cordileone was installed as the ninth Metropolitan Archbishop of San Francisco Thursday October 4, 2012 at a mass at the ... more

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

March for Marriage isn't antigay, Archbishop Cordileone says

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San Francisco's Roman Catholic archbishop told critics who have assailed his decision to speak Thursday at the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., that the event is not an attack on gays and lesbians.

"The March for Marriage is not 'anti-LGBT' (as some have described it); it is not anti-anyone or anti-anything," Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a letter released Monday. "Rather, it is a pro-marriage march. The latter does not imply the former. Rather, it affirms the great good of bringing the two halves of humanity together so that a man and a woman may bond with each other and with any children who come from their union."

Cordileone addressed the letter to Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and several other politicians and gay rights groups. They called on Cordileone last week not to attend the march, noting that its sponsors include the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council, which they said were among "the national's most virulently anti-LGBT organizations."

March organizers hope to draw thousands of supporters of heterosexual-only marriage to the capital. Cordileone and former GOP presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum are billed as the star speakers.

Cordileone was one of the main backers of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that California voters approved to ban same-sex marriage. Federal courts later threw out the initiative, and as popular support has swung toward same-sex marriage rights, some Prop. 8 backers have complained that they've been harassed because of their support of the measure.

Without referring to Prop. 8, Cordileone wrote that "it is true that historically in our society violence has been perpetrated against persons who experience attraction to members of the same sex, and this is to be deplored and eradicated. Sadly, though, we are now beginning to see examples, although thankfully not widespread, of even physical violence against those who hold to the conjugal view of marriage."